This invention relates to electronic devices, and more particularly, to accessories for electronic devices such as accessories with button controllers.
Electronic devices such as computers, media players, and cellular telephones typically contain audio jacks. Accessories such as headsets have mating plugs. A user who desires to use a headset with an electronic device may connect the headset to the electronic device by inserting the headset plug into the mating audio jack on the electronic device. Miniature size (3.5 mm) phone jacks and plugs are commonly used with electronic devices such as notebook computers and media players, because audio connectors such as these are relatively compact.
Stereo audio connectors typically have three contacts. The outermost end of an audio plug is typically referred to as the tip. The innermost portion of the plug is typically referred to as the sleeve. A ring contact lies between the tip and the sleeve. When using this terminology, stereo audio connectors such as these are sometimes referred to as tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) connectors. The sleeve can serve as ground. The tip contact can be used in conjunction with the sleeve to handle a left audio channel and the ring contact can be used in conjunction with the sleeve to handle the right channel of audio.
In devices such as cellular telephones, it is often necessary to convey microphone signals from the headset to the cellular telephone. In arrangements in which it is desired to handle both stereo audio signals and microphone signals, an audio connector typically contains an additional ring terminal. Audio connectors such as these have a tip, two rings, and a sleeve and are therefore sometimes referred to as four-contact connectors or tip-ring-ring-sleeve (TRRS) connectors. When a four-contact connector is used, the sleeve may serve as ground. The tip contact and the outermost ring contact may be used in conjunction with the ground to carry audio for the left and right headset speaker audio channels. The innermost ring contact may be used in conjunction with the ground to carry microphone signals.
Some users may wish to operate their cellular telephones or other electronic devices remotely. To accommodate this need, some modern microphone-enabled headsets feature a button. When the button is pressed by the user, the microphone line is shorted to ground. Monitoring circuitry in a cellular telephone to which the headset is connected can detect the momentary grounding of the microphone line and can take appropriate action. In a typical scenario, a button press might be used to answer an incoming telephone call or might be used skip tracks during playback of a media file.
Conventional button arrangements such as these offer limited functionality.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide headsets and other accessories with improved button arrangements.